Manatee
young are called calves. And it's a big event when a
manatee calf is born, because manatee reproduction is a slow process.
The gestation period for a manatee is about eleven to
thirteen months.

Manatee births
don't happen very often. Male manatees are not sexually mature until they
are about nine years old, and female manatees do not start to reproduce
until they are four or five years old. Once they are mature, female manatees
only have calves about once every two to five years.

Manatee
Babies are Big Too
When born, Manatee calves are about one meter (between 3-4 feet) long
and weigh between 37-31 kilograms (60-70 pounds). At birth, they are capable
of swimming to the surface on their own and vocalize at or soon after
birth.

Mother manatees
nurse their young for a long period, and a calf may remain dependent on
its mother for up to two years. The female manatee assumes total responsibility
for raising the calf. The calf nurses from nipples located behind the
mother's flippers and begins to eat plants a few weeks after birth. Nursing
takes place under water.

Ranger Wayne
carefully counts and records the number of calves each year at Blue Spring.
These are his calf counts since 1998.

Ranger
Wayne's
Calf Count

2004

08
calves

2003

17
calves

2002

07
calves

2001

10
calves

2000

12
calves

1999

10
calves

1998

08
calves

Monitoring
the calf numbers is really important for several reasons. First, manatee
reproduction is a slow process, and manatee births are not an everyday
event, so researchers closely watch the number of calves. Second, manatee
births are even more important because manatees are an endangered species,
and so every new birth makes a differenceto the long term future of the
species. For the manatee, births are are the counterpart of deaths, and
this is a delicate balance.

Try
This! Journaling Questions:

How many
pounds were you when you were born? How long were you? How does that
compare to the average weight and length of a newborn manatee? What
percent of a newborn manatee was your weight or length?

What is
the maximum number of calves that a female could possibly give birth
to if she began having calves at age four and lived to the age of 60?

How does
that maximum number of calves change if the female reproduces every
five years, instead of every two?

If an
average Manatee lives to sixty years old, what percentage of its life
is spent with its mother if it stays for two years?

What
evidence indicates that manantees are good mothers?

To visualize
the changing number of calves each year at Blue Spring from year to
year, use the Blue Spring calf counts and prepare a graph of calf counts
year by year.